Today we started our day early with a 7:00 breakfast at the hotel. Everyone had a choice between an American, British, French, or Swiss-styled breakfast — all of them were delicious. After that we got ready to go to the middle school. The entire group had to split up into two in order to fit onto the very crowded buses.
When we arrived at the school we were welcomed with an opening ceremony. The president and vice president of the school gave speeches, and so did Wang Lao Shi! The MFS students along with some students from the school participated in a China trivia game. The kids from the school sang a few songs in Chinese. One of the songs included Chinese sign language words along with the vocal words. The students were invited to sing one of the songs they had learned in Chinese. After that we split into our groups and went to a classroom. Each group taught the students an American dance and classroom game. It was all a lot of fun! Then some MFS student played a friendly basketball game with some of the students from the school. Both teams played very well. When the game was over we sadly had to say goodbye to our newly made Chinese friends.
Our lunch was at a buffet restaurant close to the school. The food was very good and we were even entertained by a Hibachi chef dancing and playing music while cooking.
Next on our agenda was to bike around the Xi’an wall. We learned some interesting history of the place as we were walking there. When we got on top of the wall everyone got a bicycle and we all biked around the perimeter of the wall, which is about 12 kilometers. Everyone was exhausted by the end, but it was very fun.
After biking we took a quick stop at the hotel to rest and then soon go to a market and a mosque. The mosque is the largest and oldest one in China and is also really beautiful. We were given a history of Muslims in China by Li Li’s friend at the Mosque. Then we walked around the Mosque for 15 minutes.
Before dinner we got another chance to bargain in a Chinese market. Our dinner was at a place on a popular street in Xi’an. The restaurant had great Xi’an styled food, including many vegetables and a delicious broth soup. By the end of dinner everyone was tired from our very busy day in Xi’an, so we all went back to the hotel to go to sleep until the next day.